2012: Boo to the silly season

The Boston Globe’s Viser: “The presidential race has so far not always been marked by its high-minded debate, guided more by tweaks on Twitter than detailed policy prescriptions for fixing the economy. On Tuesday, enter Kevin Youkilis into the political discussion.”

And he notes: “Romney himself is not completely error-free in his record with Red Sox Nation. During a debate in 2007, the former Massachusetts governor (and self-described ‘true-suffering fan’), botched the well-known drought between World Series victories (hint: 86 years). ‘Eighty-seven long years,’ Romney said. ‘We waited 87 long years. And true suffering Red Sox fans that my family and I are, we could not have been more happy than to see the Red Sox win the World Series, except by being able to beat the Yankees when they were ahead three games to none.’”

The Boston Globe breaks down New Hampshire: “[T]he sense in both camps is that the fight for this state’s four electoral votes will be close and possibly pivotal in the presidential election… Still, New Hampshire should be Obama’s to lose. Its 5 percent unemployment rate is among the lowest in the country, a long tradition of staunch Republican loyalty has been eroded by Massachusetts transplants, and the president could benefit from a backlash against Republican-led cuts to the state budget.”

Attention show producers prepping for the Supreme Court health-care decision… AP has a nice timeline of the various health reform efforts going all the way back to 1912 (and don’t worry the summaries are just a paragraph each).

Music to our ears… “The long, slow march toward a major college football playoff is over. It has been approved,” USA Today writes. “Conference commissioners met with an oversight committee of university presidents and chancellors here Tuesday to approve the four-team seeded playoff, consisting of two semifinal games in bowls and a national championship game that will be put up for bid.” Now, how about an eight-team playoff…